Why Rebecca believes joining HPHH was ‘meant to be’

Rebecca is her own biggest advocate on her mental health journey. When she came to HPHH in 2019 – one of the first participants in Hunter – she was nervous but open in sharing that she had tried every kind of therapy out there to help herself.

She initially heard about HPHH from a ‘random flyer’ which came across her previous NDIS plan managers’ desk. Before she joined HPHH she wanted to get a dog, but her plans were waylaid due to the pandemic. Almost 4 years later, Rebecca has a Maltese x Shih Tzu named Odin who she absolutely adores despite him being “so stubborn”.

“I wanted to buy a dog and train it... so I could get it certified [as a therapy dog],” Rebecca says.

“I didn’t leave the house much [before joining HPHH]. Being on the spectrum, I don’t like change... I spent lots of time at home.”

In addition to being one of our first ever participants, Rebecca was our first participant to transition into volunteering in Hunter – now it’s her favourite part of coming to HPHH.

“I like working with the nervous, scared dogs and watching them come out of their shell... it’s just building that trust,” Rebecca says.

“I don’t like thinking about [why they have] gotten to that point, but at least we can help make a difference in their lives.”

Thinking back to her first session, Rebecca remembers being “so scared” and feeling overwhelmed to even attend HPHH. Now, the highlight of her week is coming onsite to attend sessions and volunteer.

“I love [helping with] rehabilitating the dogs, giving the cats their medications, watching behaviour assessments being done. There’s lots of things that I liked to learn,” she says.

She says she has changed a lot since she started attending HPHH.

“If you ask my cousin [how much I have changed], she’d say a lot. Michelle always says that now I have a purpose in life,” Rebecca says.

“It’s helped me come out of my shell, definitely.”

Rebecca says HPHH makes her feel happy and that she likes feeling like she’s helping in some way. Team Leader Nina Waterton says that Rebecca helps change the lives of people and rescue animals every time she comes to HPHH.

“You really help us by getting the animals out of their kennels and spending time with them and doing training with them. Even just sweeping the floor helps us so much,” Nina says.

Rebecca recommends HPHH to people who love animals and want to volunteer somewhere.

“The people are nice and it’s a worthwhile program. Especially anyone that is treatment resistant and conventional therapies don’t work,” Rebecca says.

Rebecca is so grateful for that flyer and believes it was destined to be on that desk at that time.

“It was meant to be. I don’t even know how it got there... I love the universe,” she says.